Oh Dear Sweet Blog....

I will be leaving you soon, for a short time. Of course, I've neglected you nearly all month as is, and I'm going to keep it up, I promise! Yes, I promise not to write any more posts until the end of June, because I'll be going away! I'm leaving for the humid and sweaty climes of South Carolina, where I'll enjoy being yelled at, and running to and fro, and getting lost in the woods, and not sleeping.

But when I get back, I promise also, to play lots and lots of Advanced Squad Leader, and to tell the world about my games. I already have some email games in progress, but I won't tell you about them now. You'll have to wait, and plead for posts with bated breath and whispring humblenesse.

VASL League, Round Two

One of my earliest memories in life is playing Pea Ridge with my dad. He was a wargamer, and as a child I must have been fascinated with the games he set up and played solitaire. I remember playing as the Confederates, and trying to get their artillery up onto the high ground; it didn't work, since the terrain was densely forested. They way to go with artillery in that game is to bring it up to the edge of the cornfields and blast away, clearing the area for the infantry to run through to the next forested area.

Iron Cross German counters
Image Credit: tac ope at BGG

At any rate, as a kid I was always drawn to tactical-scale games. I played a lot of GBACW, but not many WWII games. I loved Iron Cross, a Strategy & Tactics magazine game of man-to-man WWII combat, but I mostly played it by myself. My dad said it was terrible, and it retrospect it was. Terrible things seem awesome when you're a kid, because the imagination is so much more vivid. And everything is new. I vaguely remember the combat mechanics--firing units would roll two dice and compare the sum to the total firing strength. If you rolled less that the firing strength, you'd pin the guy; less that half, he was suppressed; and less that a quarter, you inflict casualties. I think that's how it worked.  But the game was ugly. I mostly played it solitaire, after a few games with my dad. I played as the Russians, and remember him telling me, when I was getting slaughtered, "Each one of my soldiers is worth five of yours."  I suppose there's some truth to that.

Once long ago my dad and I went to visit a friend of his from college, who was also a wargamer. He showed us some games he had set up, in progress. And he mentioned Squad Leader. "It's the best wargame ever made," he said. I've always remembered that moment; being twelve or thirteen, asking him questions about the game. Squad-based? Ten guys to a counter? Fighting in cities? It sounded awesome.   Unfortunately I didn't really have any money myself, I didn't even know where to buy wargames (they weren't in stores; I'm not old enough to have lived in those days), and my dad wasn't into WWII so he never got games on the subject.

Fast forward several years. Like, over ten. I'd basically stopped playing wargames for a long time, for myriad reasons. I didn't even have any. But the bug bit me again, and I realised that I deeply loved the hobby and wanted to get back into it. I didn't own any wargames, though, and after some searching around I discovered Board Game Geek and the new Wargaming Renaissance. And I still remembered my dad's friend, saying that Squad Leader was the best wargame ever made. This naturally led to ASL...the Starter Kits were out. So in 2007 I got the first one, and started searching for opponents.

I was living in Athens, GA at the time, studying classics at the University of Georgia. Back then, the old MMP website had an ASL player's directory. Too bad no one on that list in Athens was active. I didn't get any replies at all when I sent out some emails, except one from a guy who said he didn't play anymore.

But there was Gamesquad, and somehow or another I hooked up with a guy named Jason, who was also And he and I met at Jittery Joe's on Barnett Shoals Rd and played a starter kit scenario. I can't remember the exact scenario, but it was probably War of the Rats. But due to my general flakiness, coupled with stress and being generally busy and soul-crushed by graduate studies, I never played with him again. In fact, after a few months' infatuation with ASL, I set it aside for a couple of years. I just didn't have time.

Fast forward several years! And I'm in the 2013 VASL Tournament! And in Round Two I get paired with Jason! Pretty cool, eh? He sent me a short list of desired scenarios, and I picked J1 Urban Guerillas, based on its reputation as an awesome scenario. Plus it's old, and I'm trying to play old scenarios. I wanted to be the attacker, since I'd defended in my round one match...so I got to be the mighty Russians. I admit to being a little concerned about balance, though. ROAR has this one as slightly pro-Russian, but when I asked about it on the ASL Facebook page, people responded that "any competent German player should always win." So who knows. Maybe it's the sort of scenario that requires a fairly high level of play for the Germans, but if done well, the Russians can be shut out of a win. I don't really know...I mean, isn't that the benchmark of a balanced scenario? The one who plays with the most skill wins?

Anyway, we got started and played the scenario over four or five sessions.

Initial setup

Jason setup some forward defenses, but with a substantial fall-back group. He put his King Tiger behind the wall by the cathedral, which I thought was odd--it was already virtually indestructible, so I didn't see the point of going hull down. Yet it turned out to be a good spot.

My plan was to take a two-pronged approach. The bulk of my infantry was setup on the right. The plan was to gain the CC7 building and get setup for a massive rush across the bridge there. Meanwhile a smaller force would push up the center and hook around the left to clear out whatever Germans were outside the perimeter of the wall. I felt sure that V6 and possibly O9 were dummies, but I wanted to flush them out nevertheless. I also wanted to send a T-34 out that way to find the German 88. I suspected that it would be hiding out behind the hedge to the left, guarding the bridges and the German right flank. I was hoping it wasn't there, though, because I intended to bring my reinforcements on on the left, and I didn't want to lose my massive IS-I22m tanks to side shots. My reinforcements--two tanks, several 6-2-8s--would be the real attacking force, while Jason was focused on the right. I'd use them to turn the German flank and get across the leftmost bridge, using armored assault for cover.

In some ways my plan was ill-conceived, and I made several tactical mistakes, and for the first half of the scenario I felt like I was losing horribly. But in retrospect, when I reviewed my save files, things went generally according to plan. But many Russians died this day.

A good example of horrible play on my part was the use of my HMG. I set it up next to the T-34 in the center, and it was mostly useless all game. I SHOULD have put it in level two of G8, where it could have covered a bridge and shot a lot of things. I mean, it obviously would have attracted a great deal of fire from the German tanks, but then they would have been firing less at my tanks and men. Live and learn.

I proceeded to move according to plan, but soon realised that Jason's setup was carefully planned out and there were few places I could go and not get hammered. Plus there were a few Lines of Sight I failed to correctly eyeball; I lost a tank in the very first turn to the Tiger which I thought was safe. It was stationed bypass, in motion even. But a mere touch from a Tiger's bullet is enough to kill a T-34. 'Twas no more, and the brave comrades who manned it met their end. The Germans drew first blood.

Turn 2

At least in some good news, my tank on the right was not dead. As it drove up the board-edge on turn 2, The German 88 fired on it. That gave me quite a fright, as it was in a completely unexpected place. Fortunately, I survived and hid behind the woods, stopped, and acquired the Panzer across the water. But that Panzer was in motion and would easily get away from me next turn. 

As you can see, I was averaging only about three hexes worth of ground gained per turn so far. I felt stymied. I was already taking casualties but had done absolutely no damage to the Germans, and their lines were still very much in good order. 

And then there was turn three. Things...happened. First of all, this was the turn I brought on my heavy reinforcements. Since the German 88 was revealed, I had no qualms about bringing them on where I originally wanted to. Plus, the 88 might not be able to even see them crossing the second bridge. I also wasn't worried about the Panzer over the canal, no the Tiger, too much, because I'd be coming around its rear and Jason would have to drive it around. I decided I'd split the IS-2s up, one heading straight for the bridge while the other would head down the lower road to fire on the Germans manning the wall and to keep the Tiger honest. I think it would have required an improbable for the Tiger to hurt me. I was worried more about Panzerfausts, honestly. So I moved a bunch of infantry around the German squad in U8, the one with the PSK, trying to draw fire, but it held off, even vs. a half-squad with a DC. I decided not to place the DC, figuring I might need it later, but I was hoping that the feint would draw fire. Nope. So I had to risk it, hoping that he'd just miss. Range two, firing on a moving tank, plus he was in a building....

Jason fired his Panzerschrek. Missed. Didn't try for a PF. This may have been his biggest mistake in the game. Yet the dice gods decided to kill my tank next turn anyway.

Start of German Turn 3

Also on turn three, the Tiger turned and blazed another T-34. That was a sad loss. The thing was trapped, really, and doomed one way or another. But also on this turn my sniper finally did something.

See, in scenarios in which I have a very high SAN (6 in this case), I freely take low odds shots. I do whatever I can to get the other guy to roll the dice a lot, so even if I'm only getting PTCs on him, at least he's rolling the dice, possibly activating my sniper. But Jason kept going out of his way to NOT roll a 6, and even when he did nothing happened. But on turn three my sniper realised that we were, in fact, at war, and shot the German 9-1. Take that! And then a partisan HS appeared in the cathedral. Not that he did anything. And I still didn't even have a toe-hold in any building, while I had only four moves left. Pathetic. I was losing this one bad.

The next turn was ridiculous. I had so many troops piled into the CC7 building that I started to think about setting up for a human wave across the bridge. Human Waves usually don't work, but I needed to pile on. Plus, with a SAN of 6, maybe running through residual isn't a bad idea. But running through all that machine-gun fire usually is a bad idea. It would have to wait. First, I'd have to kill the last Germans in the CC7 building. Close Combat it would be. A never-ending Melee.

In the German half of turn three, Jason pulled his squads back from the wall, I suppose to keep them from being flanked on their right. This gave me an opportunity, however, to throw my forces up against that wall and start assaulting the cathedral proper. I was able to start to crack the nut. I moved my 8-0 up with the flamethrower, fired, and...rolled an 11. No gas. My IS-2 on the left flank fired...and boxcars. The next rally phase it was Recalled. my equipment was falling apart! To make matters even worse, the Panzer killed my last T-34! I knew it was a little risky leaving it sitting on the road like that, but the to-kill odds weren't extremely high, and the IS-2 was supposed to protect it. We'd been firing at each other and were both aquired, both CE. My final TK would have been better, even. The Germans just got the hit in first. 

So, I was left with one tank. And the Tiger moved and took a position to guard the other bridge. Like an idiot, I didn't have my partisan try for a PF. Instead he just watched the Germans drive past, then he got killed by the SS. Fools. 

The only upside at this point was the fact that the Germans in the cathedral started failing morale checks, and I was about to enter the building. I was finally getting things tightened up, but I'd lost so much material.

Turn 4

I was able to get into the cathedral...and kill a Tiger. See, I'd laid Acq on it already. But then it blew smoke on itself and moved forward. I turned my turret to track it and took a terrible shot...but rolled a crit and it burst into flame. That was rewarding. On the right, the Germans rolled a 12 in our Melee, and I decided to withdraw one of my squads into CC7, since all that remained of the Germans was a half-squad. I still didn't kill it, though. And the 88 started blasting CC7 and scored a KIA on my squad which had left the Melee! ridiculous. 

Start of turn 5

But the fifth turn was the turn when things really turned around for me. More than anything, my sniper helped. Remember, all game up to this point it had only come awake twice: once to shoot the German 9-1 and once to create a Partisan unit. There were still five squads of SS in the Cathedral, although many were broken. I was about to encircle the entire building. On the other hand, there was a lot of firepower trained on one of the bridges--and most of my manpower was on the right. 

But in the space of one full game-turn, my sniper: (1) Generated another partisan in the Cathedral, which re-DMed several squads and eventually led to the German loss of five or six squads and a leader to failure to Rout or No Quarter. Yeah, that's right. I killed all those Nazis! Take no prisoners!  (2) Whacked the CE Panzer, with a little stun. Good enough. (3) Whacked the German halftrack. Dude was recalled. (4) Broke the 88 crew. The German defense was collapsed. So, my strategy of trying to get Jason to roll the dice as much as possible--running idiots out in the open, taking pot-shots, eating resid--finally paid off. I mean, with SAN 6, I'm due a lot of sniper activity, but the fact that so much happened all at once really was huge. After this, my sniper lay quiet. It had been a good killing day; sated with blood, he lay himself down to sleep in the woods.

But I still needed one more building, and after turn 6 I still wasn't across any of the bridges in any force. I moved some guys up onto the left bridge, but two leaders broke and routed across; on the right, I got a half-squad across, but a full squad was cut down on the bridge. German 6-5-8s are not to be trifled with. Even though the Germans were broken to pieces, they still held the buildings I needed and I had only one turn to go.  Would I be able to make it? It was at this point that we had to stop playing, so I was in agony all week, thinking about the game. Would the Germans in the back rally in time to move into one of the buildings? I might be able to handle one squad, but two would be rough. 

Top of German 6

Lucky for me, they didn't rally until turn 7, during my Rally Phase. At the beginning of Turn 7, all he had was a GO squad with LMG in the left building, a GO squad in the right building, and a GO squad with an 8-1 leader in the woods behind the building, which wouldn't be able to help much. The Gun crew had tried to run back behind to get into the left building, but I found a tricky LOS and broke him in bypass from CC7. 

See, for most of the scenario, I felt like I was losing horribly, but then things had turned around and now I could see victory in my grasp. I had to play this last turn just right, but also I'd need some luck. And while I had lost most of my vehicles, I still had a ton of infantry, which was exactly what I needed. And I still had those DCs.

I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the right building, but I tried to run past the tank anyway. It didn't work. Everyone kept breaking, and there weren't enough squads close enough. So it would depend on the left. I needed to soak off fire from that last squad! 

First move: half-squad with the DC moves up for one. The Germans lay down a fire-lane with the LMG. I have to take a morale check on the 2 down 2, but I pass. Next hex. A big twelve down 2 shot against me. The Germans cower in terror. My HS places the DC. No final protective fire. OK! Maybe I have this. But I have to guarantee it. I have to take this building to win the game. And I really want to win. Next up, I CX a 6-2-8 with a DC under my IS-2m. He runs out into the machine-gun fire, willing to die for the Motherland. The Fascist invaders must be crushed! One neg two...heat of battle on the MC. They become Fanatics! Which is as it should be...in this final moment of truth, my brave comrades show their true meddle. They must place this demolition charge. They get into the building and put it on the Germans. Still no final protective fire. 

At this point the IS-2 starts up, and two more squads move with it, guarding themselves from the hail of bullets in the street. They make it into Z2. If these DCs don't to the job, I'm going to have to go into CC, and I wanted to have 3-1 odds on him. I would have a CX penalty, but so be it. This game was coming down to the last moments, but at least I'd assured myself several chances to get good rolls--two DCs, and ambush roll, a CC roll. 

In the advancing fire phase, Jason rolled a 12 on his morale check. That ended the scenario. I won! At this point, I'm 2-0 in the tournament, which exceeds my expectations. I figured I'd lose my first game.

I had a ton of fun playing this, not least because of the swings of fortune and the fact that I was on the edge of my seat for the entire experience. Jason is a very good opponent; I felt like the only really big mistake he made was his AA gun placement, honestly; but I could be wrong. Plus it was really awesome to play him again after five years. I'd have to say this one ranks pretty high for me in terms of great ASL experiences; I'll remember this one for a while. Thanks for the game, Jason! 

But now I'm scared of my next tourney game; I'll be paired with someone else who is undefeated, and probably much better than me. But hey, as long as I can go at least 3-2 in the tournament, I'll be happy. 

By the way, I've been listening to Pavement while I wrote this. I listened to their first album, Slanted and Enchanted, constantly that summer living in Athens. It was a bittersweet time. I'll leave you with one of their songs. Spero tibi placere.

J1 Urban Guerillas

Early war...just a different war.

Here's a scenario I would love to play. From Operations magazine, features several Russian armoured cars...I don't know if they are in VASL or if I will have to twist someone's arm.

Hey, I just learned this

It's not like I haven't read the rulebook before. I just forgot, that's all. It never comes up. But here it is:

When you roll a 12 on a MC, you casualty reduce. It happens on a rally attempt, too. That's called "fate." But that's not what I learned. Or remembered, I mean. If you roll an original 12 on a MC when you are already broken, you don't just casualty reduce. You're eliminated outright. Yep. That's in A10.31.

I learned something else. I already knew that broken, DM units which are adjacent to an enemy unit might surrender. If every single location into which they could enter could be interdicted, then they will just surrender instead.

But if they are encircled, they'll surrender, too, even if they otherwise could run away.

ASL 18 The Roadblock

NEUVILLE-AU-PLAIN, June 6, 1944. Last week I got to play this, the last scenario from Paratrooper, with a man from the Faroe Islands named Daniel. Not only was it interesting to hear Faroese spoken, but the scenario itself is a great one: probably the best one in the module (although I have two left to play, so I may speak too soon).

It's also a bit unusual in that it is 11.5 turns long,  uses four boards, and starts off with 24 squads on-board. This is the "big" scenario. However, it doesn't feel very big while playing, because much of the play area isn't used, an SSR severely restricts German movement, and American reinforcements have a variable turn of entry. Thus the predicted playing time of seven to nine hours isn't accurate.

The situation of the scenario is that a platoon of  American infantry, which may set up HIP, must hold off an entire German company. My goal, as the Germans, was to exit at least 20 points off the opposite side of the board. Pretty easy to do, right? I've got 45 points in infantry, plus two AFVs worth 5 each. But it's quite a distance to travel; and on top of that, SSR 4 screws with German movement: the German player may not move more Good Order MMC during each MPh than the number rolled on a Movement Secret DR. With 19 squads, I couldn't move everything, unless I kept my squads in big stacks with leaders (which would exempt them from the SSR). But with an American SAN of 5, this is a risky proposition, and it flies in the face of common-sense ASL infantry tactics.

The SSR also reduces the effectiveness of using Deployment to sniff out the HIP Americans. I was lucky in that I typically rolled pretty good numbers with the exception of one turn where I rolled a double one. That hurt. It also hurt when the American sniper took my OT Marder out of the game.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I should show you how far I got in the first two movement phases:

The Germans have a long way to go...

Not bad, but also kind of retarded. I mean, slow. Since all the Germans have to come on at a single hex,  and there are so many squads, it was a clusterfrack at first. And of course I was cautious about a forward American defense--MG in level 2 of that stone building? Who knows. My Marder didn't bring Smoke to the fight, so I was going to have to sprint for the cover of the bocage by the road, get on line then start exploring the woods on the outskirts of the village...where Frankish pagans once performed rites to Venus thousands of years ago, and even now in 1944 they meet in secret cabals to assist the barbaric American invaders.

True story.

It was turn 4 that I finally made contact with the Americans. A lone squad popped out of the woods and fired on me, breaking a leader and pinning several squads down, out in the open. And, since the dice were rolling now, snipers started going off, shooting the Marder's commander in the head, then breaking one of my half-squads. Thankfully I was at least able to break the American squad with overwhelming advancing fire.

If I could spread out and move everyone, this would be much easier!

But I still can't move much. I realise that from the American perspective the Germans look like an overwhelming threat. But I felt like I was moving a fat, lazy monster. If I catch you, you're toast.

The next turn I meet the main line of the American defense which pops up and starts firing on me a lot. Another leader breaks, while an entire squad is massacred by close-range fire when they are caught in the open. Another squad breaks in the druid's grove, but quickly rallies up. Meanwhile, my broken leader in the back-field is very depressed and starts cutting himself. His mother told him that self-cutting isn't the answer, but the stresses of combat are too much for him today. His mother also told him that the druid's grove is haunted, and his CO has ordered him to enter it! A bayonet through the foot should do the job. With only 3MF, he won't be able to make it very far. Unfortunately, his Oberleutnant finds him out. After a stern Prussian monologue, two men from second squad are ordered to help him walk. He will have to keep fighting today.

Start of turn 6

And the fighting gets hotter. My advance slows considerably in turn 6, due in part to a poor Secret DR* and in part to withering machine-gun fire. I still had not found the Gun, however, nor the other American machine gun. But I do find it the next turn. He's guarding the road intersection at the edge of town, where my tank rolls in, and gets killed by bazooka fire by another squad, three hexes away. The silver lining is that the backblast kills half the squad, and I'm able to take the rest of them prisoner. By the end of turn 7, all the Americans have left is two squads and a hidden gun. But I've also lost two squads, and both vehicles--which are very important to protect because of their point value.

After breaking some of my squads in defensive fire, the American 9-2 falls back through town. At the beginning of turn 8, I'm still stuck at the edge of town and hoping that the Americans get their reinforcements--because then I can start to move freely.

Start of Turn 8

It was probably stupid of me to put together a large kill-stack in the stone building where I did. There simply aren't enough Americans to shoot at. Oh well. It was around this time that Daniel starting saying, "My position is crumbling, this is very bad. My setup was terrible! I can't win!"

At the same time I was thinking, "This is horrible! I can't win! I have too far to go! Only four movement phases left!!!"

Which actually turned out to be the case. The American reinforcements didn't show up until turn 9, which is the last possible turn. To be honest, I think that hurts the Germans more than it helps.

Anyway, as I began to move through the town, the AT gun revealed itself and did some damage when I entered the lumberyard. Thankfully I was able to get past it--it was a little out of position--then got lucky and killed the crew with small-arms fire. The Americans came on in a good position, on my flank, but I was still able to break the American center. However, the damage I was doing to the infantry was irrelevant. By turn 11 it was evident that it would be mathematically impossible for me to win. IF the game were an extra turn long, then it would have been a close-run thing, though.

Turn 11

However, this scenario was awesome, and so far is in my top 5 list for scenarios from 1985-1990. There's a ton of replayability to this one, too--German movement DRs and American entry drs can change the dynamic of the game. In fact, they can possibly screw the Germans (imagine rolling less than 7 every turn!), so this one may not be ideal for competitive games.

Still, I highly recommend this scenario and I would play it again at any time, but I might think about giving the Germans that extra turn.

VASL can really spoil ya

Raaco vs. Plano? Who cares! To clip or not clip, C4 or Oregon Laminations, it doesn't matter! And with VASL, you don't have to worry about how to store your overlays once you've accidentally cut them to pieces. Playing on VASL means you don't have to ever worry about maintaining your kit.

And, as the 2 half squads like to point out, you don't have to wear pants.

All of my ASL components sit nestled away in storage and I don't have to mess with them, at all. Of course, this is fine when I'm playing mostly on-line. But recently when I was prepping for a face-to-face game, I realised that my kit is mostly in disarray. Some counters are in Plano; others are in some ridiculous storage boxes; many are still unpunched. My Japanese and about half my Germans are in coin envelopes, a system I'd decided to convert over to when I saw it in action. And overlays? Most of them aren't even cut out. I hate overlays.

So when it comes to face to face play, I'm at a severe disadvantage. But I'm spoiled! Sorting ASL crap is a hobby unto itself, and often I'd rather spend my time reading articles or working on setups rather than labeling envelopes or trimming counters. But truth be told, the game is far more fun when played face to face, so I suppose I should get my stuff together soon.